English opener Alex Hales has declared that he will be back in the red-ball circuit after next year’s World Cup. The opener announced last February that his target was to focus only on white-ball cricket and, as a result, opted to take a sabbatical from red-ball cricket.

He has, however, cleared the air a bit in this regard as he stated that his decision of quitting four-day cricket was simply an effort to put all his focus and energy on preparing for the World Cup next year.

“I’m certainly not turning my back on four-day cricket. For 18 months I wanted to dedicate all my practice and all my energy to getting as good as I can at white-ball cricket just for the World Cup.”

“The energy and enthusiasm I’ve now got turning up to practice and all the matches involving white-ball cricket is the most I’ve ever had in my career.”

Alex Hales has featured in 11 Tests and made only 573 runs at an average of 27.28. In contrast, he has made 2018 runs from 57 innings with an average of 36.69 and has scored five centuries and 12 half-centuries in the process.

It just goes on to show that perhaps Hales was wise in choosing to focus on white-ball cricket before the World Cup as he is clearly a player made for the latter.